12/22/2005

police have been infiltrating NYC protests

not just going undercover: inciting stuff, getting "arrested." videotaping also. it's interesting how much videotaping is referenced in this article--collecting citizen and police videotapes to protect people arrested at the Republican Nat. Convention the other year, etc. Police Infiltrate Protests, Videotapes Show - New York Times (note to self - saved for later as pdf). possible english/civics paper topic.

rfid physical address book

great example of "thinking through making." the idea is that his cell phone that will do an action when it encounters a certain rfid tag, so you set up rfid tags and put them under your desk, so you can set your phone down to say, "I am in the office" or something. The address book desk

kb says

12/19/2005

Mithra

more christmas

I'm totally in it for the 'pagan rituals' anyway—the baking, the tree, the gathering together and christmas morning phone calls and to a certain extent the exchange of gifts. the lighting of candles at the midnight church service (one for every family). Jesus' birthday is not really related to what I'm celebrating.

recommended mac apps

12/18/2005

Black Sticky Gingerbread

This recipe is SO FUCKING DELICIOUS: Black Sticky Gingerbread. It has a slightly crunchy top and a soft sticky inside... if I don't stop talking/thinking about it I will have to go have another ramekin-cake. Holy fuck, delicious.

12/17/2005

"yay me"

for future reference: some weeks, even when everything seems to be like crap, I do a good job on things.

On Thursday my lab partner and I did a good presentation on ceramic and tantalum capacitors. I made gingerbread cookie capacitors, which the professor liked.

I showed up an hour and ten minutes late to the chem final and finished it in the remaining hour plus 10 minutes. (The first part is not "yay." I remembered the final time as 11:45, but it was actually 10:45) My crib sheet (allowed) was really good.

I gave my roommate his first snowboarding lesson last weekend. He doesn't hate me OR snowboarding.

top ten list

distributed proofreading

spring semester plan

this semester isn't quite over yet, but here is the plan (with specific actions!) for next semester:

do work in the mornings. every week, do some work for each class, and do homework on at least two seperate days.

talk to the professors. within the first three weeks of class, talk to each professor outside of regular class at least twice.

do specific exercise or recreation activities on normal days, alongside other responsibilities. engage in some form of physical distraction at least twice a week.

also should avoid "science lab russian roulette"—though it should be easier because I won't be taking any lab courses—which is in full swing since Monday; the idea is that I save 2 to 6 lab reports for the end of the semester, and then try to complete and turn in as many as possible between the last day the Professor accepts them and the last day of finals. It's like pointing a gun at the head of any 'A' that may have been considering placement on my report card, but usually the chamber is empty.

12/15/2005

encyclopedias, wiki or otherwise

12/14/2005

making liqueurs

was going to try making some liqueurs for Christmas but it's a little late now. did make a parsley one and a pepper-ginger-cardamom one (neither sweetened, so not really liqueurs I guess?) The Webtender: A few words about liqueurs

12/13/2005

trig identities

word on the CVS disposable video camera

osmotic pressure

1/4 inch chicken wire down the middle of a tupperware container, put some lentils in both sides and chickpeas in only one side... shake the container a while, and most of the lentils end up in the side with the garbanzos. weird result; it's a model of osmotic pressure, action of solutions across semipermiable membranes. (from my chemistry notes)

12/12/2005

email excerpt

approximate quote from an email I sent.

People always say, "it's not fair" after a death, making me wonder why we keep passing on the idea that things should be fair. Fairness only really can apply to choices, not to events. Fairness is a myth like the warm ocean of the Caribbean. Here it is the perfect weather for everything, if only because we have no choice but to do everything in this weather.

secret sites comments at kottke.org

a mostly uninteresting bunch of comments about having secret blogs. it struck me though because my habit online is near-anonymity, and lately two friends have started friendster blogs, which are the complete opposite. not only are friendster blogs connected to a full profile, and made obvious to all of your "friends," but random area people browsing can find them. so someone who recognizes your face from a bar is suddenly reading about your lj-esque ups and downs. neat for travelogues and life updates for out of touch friends, but otherwise too highly visible for my taste.

cilantro = coriander

invert sugars

sugar where the sucrose is broken up into glucose+fructose, which means it doesn't crystalize as easily. corn syrup is one, honey is another. Inverted sugar syrup at Wikipedia. never heard of this until reading this bit about toasted pecan toffee (via slacker manager).

experimental physics - lab week

am really enjoying this "Week in the Lab" series at Uncertain Principles

A Week in the Lab: Slow-Motion Experimental Physics Live-Blogging - "a series of articles explaining what I'm doing on this specific project, and how it's going. If I remember to bring the digital camera in to work, I may even post pictures of the apparatus. It'll be an all-access look into the glamorous world of lost tools, bloodied knuckles, minor electrocutions, and vacuum plumbing that is the development of an optically excited metastable krypton atomic beam source."

The Big Picture - "The basic idea is to measure the amount of krypton in some other gas by trapping single krypton atoms out of a stream of gas passing into our vacuum system. The exceptional frequency selectivity of laser cooling lets you do this..." Also, krypton quirks.

Lasers, Eight O'Clock, Day One - tuning lasers. "There are two lasers involved ... One is the 819 nm laser needed for the second step of the excitation process, the other is an 811 nm laser that will ... be used for detecting the metastable atoms..."

Lock and Load - this one was my favorite: finding a tiny signal in noise

12/07/2005

more Ruby

web news in Maine

CNN money on web-based local news (Nov. 1, 2005)... was looking for more info about The Bollard and its editor, Chris Busby (because I couldn't find the masthead... eventually did, though). Until about 2002 he wrote for/edited the Casco Bay Weekly, an "edgy" local paper that no longer exists. Wrote/writes for a bunch of local publications.

'Yes,' she said and turned her ensorcellating eyes on me so that all at once I was breathless with desire and the cabin dissolved in our kiss. Yet there was still that duplicity in my heart's core. I had been marked out at the beginning as the Minister's man, for all my apathy, for all my disaffection, for I, too, would have worshipped reason if I could ever have found her shrine. Reason was stamped into me as if it were a chromosome, even though I loved the high priestess of passion. Nevertheless, we kissed; and the crew of the helicopter shielded their eyes as though we were to bright for them to bear.

p. 201 top:

The white evening dress of a Victorian romantic heroine rustled about Albertina's feet and clung like frost to her amber breasts yet I wished she had worn the transvestite apparel of her father's ambassador or had come to the table naked, with poppies in her hair, in the style she had adopted for dinner in the land of the centaurs. My disillusionment was profound. I was not in the domain of the marvellous at all. I had gone far beyond that and at last I had reached the powerhouse of the marvellous, where all its clanking, dull, stage machinery was kept. Even if it is the dream made flesh, the real, once it becomes real, can be no more than real. While I did not know her, I thought she was sublime; when I knew her, I loved her. But, even as I pared my dessert persimmon with the silver kinfe provided, I was already wondering whether the fleshly possession of Albertina would not be the greatest disillusionment of all.

Ruby reference

molecular geometry

12/04/2005

Tyson recommends

The Poisonwood Bible, a book by Barbara Kingsolver. Well, not exactly recommends: "I didn't like it but I thought you might." Also, as she hands Tim a book, Christine says of herself: "Not only am I an avid reader, I'm also a pusher." In fact, we all left with scifi/fantasy books: for me, Thud! by Terry Pratchett, who I tend to regard as light reading, but enjoyable (if you don't read two of his books in a row).

tim bates

Jen recommends

12/03/2005

porting bbedit to intel macs

Pretends at the beginning that this will be terribly difficult and full of stumbling blocks; concludes, "Despite its complex internal workings and equally complex history, the BBEdit port went smoothly." Has bits and pieces about bbedit's "complex internal workings" and history along the way. A Mac Text Editor Migrates to Intel.

art on chairs

exploding soda

of note

yesterday was the fifth anniversary of bec writes. I think this is wonderful! It means I'm persistent and awesome and egotistical enough to talk about myself for five entire years! Also I should not ever ever feel weird saying "I write a little" as long as I don't forget the "a little" part.

note to self (resolution)

Dear Self:

Don't talk about being drunk when you're drunk. People already know. Also, you get super peeved at "Are you drunk? I'm really drunk" exchanges (also: substitute high/"fucked up"/horny/excited for "drunk") when you're less drunk than other people. So remember that when you're more drunk than other people.

I know you can do that: you remember the fucking steam rising from the bar dishwasher and seeing drunk people feel smooth but look rough and also you remember the pen cap in your mouth as you wrote "Remember This" on your hand. Oh, wait. You wrote it down.

Tantalum capacitors

12/01/2005

Maine heating

Heating is big around these parts. One of my favorite Maine programs is the volunteer home winterizing thing. This reads like a press release (the bulk of it is "Baldacci's remarks, a primer on state actions thus far, and the text of a letter being sent to Northeast governors") but is good info: Maine Gov Baldacci outlines heating assistance plans.

6. Negotiations with Venezuela/CITGO. Maine will be discussing a purchase of discounted heating oil for low income Maine families with officials from Venezuela.

Every time I hear that Maine/Baldacci is negotiating with Venezuela/Chávez for discounted oil, I imagine a bizzare super-federalized USA out of distopian scifi. (The oil is for low-income families, which moderates my inklings of impending revolution.)